More Than Eyes Alone Can See
20
xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
----------------------------------------------------------------
In
“Hello?”
“I did it.”
“Excuse me?”
“I did it.
“
“Do you know anyone
else that started human trials on
experimental surgery lately?”
Ingrid Rochester rolled
her eyes behind her designer glasses.
“Well, now that you mention it . . .”
transcribing some recent lab notes.
“Didn’t you perform that surgery nearly two months ago?”
“Yeah, but I wanted
results before I called you. You’re a
snob when it comes to that sort of thing.”
“Ha-ha.
enough to submit to your care?”
The two college
friends talked for some time. Inge let
her mind drift through most of the conversation, not bothering to listen that
closely since she knew a copy of his notes and observations would be in her
hands n cln class=GramE>sooner or later.
How soon all depended on whether or noe dee decided to fly out to
LA. A break would be nice, but she was
so close to getting funding for a retrovirus project that she’d hate to leave,
even for a week. One only advanced in
the CIA if one was brilliant or a workaholic.
She grinned in pride; luckily she was the fir– “What did you just say?”
chuckled. “I know it’s hard to believe,
but I think that Sands actually deserves part of the credit.
someone to operate on.”
Inge couldn’t
believe her ears. “You said ‘Sands’?”
“Yes.
waxy build-up in your ears.”
She ignored
this. “What’s this guy’s first name?”
“I can’t tell you
that actually, and not because of doctor/patient confidentiality.
“What’s on his
chart?”
“‘Giovanni,’ but
Tess said that was a pseudonym.”
Inge had forgotten
that her old roommate had found this man.
If I’m right . . . “And she
found him in
“Mmm-hmm.”
over some test results.
“Do you know where
in
“Umm . . . yes, but
I can’t think of the name. It was the
site of that failed coup in November.”
It was “Yeah.” “Never mind. “You might have Inge “Nope. Ingrid smiled. “Sounds good. “Absolutely.” As soon as her friend “Yes, but I’m “I think he’d want “Under normal This was her day – The secretary’s William Colton was She In A confident, blond The receptionist She rode the The doors opened A half an hour “Mmm-hmm. “I’m sure.” Inge looked up for “You know . . . “Of course.” Sands had never before considered that sight could be as “Yo, Sands, let’s Despite knowing it “Good-morning to “Watch your Sand gave up. * * Tess was nervous. She What are you talking Sorry. Tess didn’t believe “Can I help you, “Umm . . . I don’t “Do you want me to “Sure.” Well, you can either stop That was a good Sands lay quietly in his bed as the nurse left. Most of his The door shut. Sand didn’t address “No.” “Then why are you “If I knew, I would “Where would anyone Tess had a funny This irritated “What?” “It’d be too much “Señor?” “At least when your “I didn’t do this “Maybe you find His words “Tell me, “No . . .” “You’re a liar, “No. “You what? Her voice was '> The name was the “Hey, Sands. We’re “Well, everything certainly seems to be progressing “I thought we were “This more like a They did this long Sands barely bit The door opened and “A colleague of “Oh, sorry. Inge shot a look at “You’re looking “I see you’re still Sands “No, no “Ah, eager to get “They’re not There was an In Tess took a break Now, five months The house was The clock stuck It’s not the same. The voice ignored That didn’t stop Tess got to her Tess realized what Downstairs, her Sands shoved his “Sheldon, our plane She’d stayed Inge, on the other “I don’t know if I
visit?”
trouble getting here by the time the office closes.”
friend. “You’ve never really grown up,
have you Logues?”
who didn’t lose thsenssense of humor.”
The receiver was muffled and she heard him giving directions to
someone. “Sorry for the interruption.
as any for you to come out. We’re
definitely a bit warmer than DC at the moment, and I know how much you hate the
cold.”
I’ll call you back when I know my ETA, but I should be out by the end of
the week.”
hung up, Ingrid left her office and hurriedly got to the wing of the Pentagon
that housed the CIA bigwigs.
the nameplates on the doors as she passed them, she quickly found the one she
wanted. She opened the door and asked
the secretary, “Is he in?”
afraid that Director Colton is in a meeting.”
to be interrupted. I have important
news.”
circumstances that might be alright, but he’s meeting with Senator Sands and
his wife.”
truly, it was. “It’s about our agent
thatt MIt MIA in
three months ago.”
eyes widened. After a moment of simply
staring at Inge, the woman got up and opened the doorthe the office.
see you.”
glad for the interruption. Senator
Sands, while an important man, was full of hot air at times.
energy. With the younger it was always a
surprise to see him sit still when you knew he was completely able of wreaking
serious havoc; the older man simply blustered.
“Dr. Rochester, this is highly unusual.
I trust you have a good explanation for your intrusion?”
haired woman walked into the lobby of the medical plaza.
approached the receptionist. “I’m
looking for Logan Pierce, can you tell me where his
office is?”
lookhe whe woman over, noting the expensive suit, leather briefcase, and well
hidden look of superiority in her eye; she knew another doctor when she saw
one. “Dr. Pierce’s offices are on the
third floor.” Inge nodded her head in
thanks and headed for a bank of elevators, her expensive leather heels clicking
against the marble floors.
elevator in silence, her thoughts awhirl.
She and Sands had had a brief but intense fling in the months before
he’d been sent to
neither pretty nor her idea.
father’s fault. The Senator had
unexpectedly shown up at Sands’ apartment as they’d been preparing to go out
one night, and he’d mentioned how good they looked together and how glad he was
that Sheldon had given up on his ‘bimbos’.
Privately, Inge had agreed.
Sheldon was the type of man she was looking for – successful,
intelligent, privileged, and sexy as hell.
But Sands hadn’t taken his father’s comments well.
three years go by without hearing one word from him, then
he practically falls into my lap. I
wonder if it’s supposed to be some kind of sign.
and she walked to the door marked with
name, rapping on it with her knuckles.
“Come in.”
later, after greeting her old friend and getting the required chit-chat out of
the way, Inge murmured, “Remarkable,” as she looked over Sands’ charts.
improvement in jtwo two months. And you
say that nearly all the nerves and tendons were still intact when he got to
you?”
was on the medication.”
It stung that Tess had been the one to find Sands.
appearance? It’s been years since I’ve
seen her.”
made an uncomfortable sound. “I’m afraid
she left. She took a job in
York
a moment in surprise.
patient before they were 100% healthy?
This is too good. “That’s too
bad, I was looking forward to spending some time with
my old roommate. I suppose it couldn’t
be helped though – I know she’d ne'>never
leave a patient before she was confident that they no longer needed her.”
looked even more uncomfortable.
Satisfied, Inge let the subject drop.
as he addressed her several minutes later; he had a mischievous grin on his
face. “Sands is scheduled for a check-up
today. I don’t suppose you’d be
interested in sitting in on my examination?
As a colleague, of course.”
his success. After all the times she
said he’d been daydreaming, she was willing to admit that she might deserve it.
disorienting as blindness . . . but it was.
Now that he was starting to see again, he almost wished that he hadn’t
gone through with things. Almost.
undistinguishable blur of light and color stage, he’d be glad to see
again. But for the moment it was a pain
in the kiester.
go man.” For the thousandth time in the
past week alone, Sands cursed Tess for leaving.
For whE>who her family was.
perpetually cheerful nurse. If Sands was
honest with himself, he hated Tess for more than just that – he hated her for
leaving him.
challenged friend.”
was going to hurt, Sands rolled his eyes.
By now he was certain the man had been picked as an extra motivator for
him to get better, because Sands was either going to be self-sufficient soon,
or he was going to shoot Carl in the head.
Sands left his room and walked into the foyer, a pair of sunglasses over
his eyes and his clothes as miss-matched as he could make them.
you too, sunshine.” Carl opened the door
and they left the house. The house that
had been extremely quiet for weeks on end.
Good.
head.” As Sands climbed into the front
seat of the car, he casually flipped the man off.
I’ve got a fiancée waiting for this job to end.”
phases this man.
Nothing gets to him.
haven’t seen one display of temper from the man.
he doesn’t throw back quotes either.
cl
class=GramE>about.
Little-miss-literature was getting annoying.
miss it.
smirking. It’s your own fault she’s
gone. Or don’t you remember?
* *
didn’t like being nervous. Nervousness gave
her too much time to think about her actions and thoughts.
go in and see him.
fine. He can’t see yet.
Sands’ condition through phone calls and conferences.
although Marcos had on several occasions.
But this morning things had changed.
This morning
called her and said that the nurses had said that Sands had been asking for
her. So here she was.
didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.
to kiss him. I think he might be sweet
on you.
happened the night before his surgery.
The whole ‘Barillo revelation’ thing?
You’ve been trying so hard not to think about it that I didn’t want to
bring it up.
that for a moment. Instead of arguing
though, she went to the door of Sands’ room.
There was a window in the door and she looked through it, watching
Sands. She couldn’t even tell if he was
awake or not.
doctor?” Tess turned to see Merrie at
her elbow. The nurse had been persistent
in her care of Sands.
want to disturb him if he’s asleep.”
go in and make sure the coast is clear?”
the room. Immediately she knew that
Sands was awake; he remained in his reclined position, but his entire body
tensed. Merrie didn’t say anything as
she adjusted his IV drip and made a note in Sands’ chart, but Tess knew he
recognized who was in the room by the way he relaxed.
the right thing by staying away. Perhaps
if she’d even dropped by every now and then, he’d find it easier to relax.
and if you thought he was charming before, you’d love him now.
mind?
being yellow and go inside and find out for yourself, or you could keep looking
for reassurance from me.
point. As Merrie came back out of the room
with a wink and an assurance that all was clear, Tess walked into the lion’s
den.
nature by now, even though time was still inconsistent where he was concerned.
consciousness drifting in a drug induced haze until someone came into the
room. He’d then have a few minutes of
coherent thought until they left, and then he’d fall back into the well of
thoughts that seemed to bubble with new information every time he looked into
it. Of course, he had probably just
forgotten most of it from the last time he could remember remembering anything.
recurring or new thoughts centered around the woman who’d been at his side night
and day for all but the past week. He
wavered between relief that she was absent and anger that she was gone.
now that he knew about her . . . family connections, but a small piece of him
resented not having her at his beck and call.
that had happened was sit around and distract him until he was capable of doing
so himself.
turning his mind and his ears to other things.
Silence. He moved his head,
detecting something.
Only near silence. There’s
someone in the room. He could hear
someone breathing over by the door. He
waited for them to speak or to move . . . nothing.
is interesting. Certainly more
interesting that anything else that had happened recently.
whoever it was who was doing their best to imitate a
potted plant. Sooner
or later their patience would wear out because he had nothing better to
do than wait for them to give themselves away.
stopped listening as he realized who it was, instead rolling his head towards
the window. He could feel the sun on his
face, and even if he couldn’t see it yet, he was willing to take what he could
get. “I don’t suppose you brought my
cigarettes,” he drawled.
the smallish room.
here?”
speak. I know little.
although she didn’t exactly come closer to the bed.
get that idea? Can you think of a reason
I’d like to talk to you?”
feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Something wasn’t right. His voice
was too . . . impersonal? Uninterested?
Tess couldn’t decide what was making her nervous, so settled on
tentatively speaking her mind. “His
mind, of man a secret makes,/I meet him with a
start,/He carries a circumference/In which I have no part,/Or even if I deem I
do –/He otherwise may know./Impregnable to inquest,/However neighborly.”
behind her back where they started wringing.
“How would I know what you’re thinking unless you tell me?”
Sands to no end. The woman was such a
coward. For once it’d be nice if she’d speak her mind instead of hiding behind
quotes. “It’d be too much to ask of you,
wouldn’t it?”
to ask you to stop being a coward.” He
could hear her stunned silence. “I
suppose some traits breed true no matter how diluted the blood.”
of hurt in her voice. What right did she
have to be hurt?
father and sister manipulated people, they did it very openly.
never know. What did you get from
this? What was in it for you?”
for me.”
comfort in telling yourself that, but we both know it’s not true.”
They came dangerously close to the truth.
Teresa. Tell me.
your heart, or was there another reason?
There was something else motivating you, wasn’t there?”
Teresa. Do you get a charge out of making
people dependent on you?”
Worthless?”
thanks I get?” What had she been thinking
to come here? “I felt responsible.
actions of my family. Whatever they did
had me at the root. So it was my fault
that they left you to die, and I . . . I accepted that.
that. I only wanted to give back what
they took.”
quiet, but dug into him with fiery claws.
He’d thought that venting his anger would make him feel better because
Tess had taken everything else he’d thrown at her with a calm eye . . .
nerves to hit after all. That didn’t
explain why he didn’t feel better. “Get
out of here, Barillo.”
equivalent of a slap in the face. For a
moment Tess could do nothing but stand frozen in her place, but then she
nodded. She understood.
way she did. “I
see why you say that only men do evil, I think.
Even sharks are innocent; they kill because they must.”
He didn’t know who she was referring to: her
family or his cruelty. Yes, he was aware
that he’d been cruel, but at the moment he really didn’t care.
When Sands didn’t reply, didn’t even acknowledge her, Tess knew that was
it. Quietly, she made her way to the
door and let herself out of his room.
there. I knew how he would feel as soon
as I realized he knew my last name.
Still, it was hard.
“T? Are you alright?”
Tess spun to find
care of Sands.” She left before the
stunned look could leave
want to talk. About anything.
room. “Well, whatever you were
attempting, it worked.”
* *
here man. Let’s go.”
his car door. Good riddance. There was no
reply. Why should there be when he
didn’t even start to believe he meant it?
nicely.”
made a note in his chart as Sands finished walking through an obstacle course;
the obstacles were large and brightly colored so they were hard to miss.
navigate the course without brushing against a single object.
the day.” Sands nodded to hide a surge
of relief – his head was starting to pound unpleasantly, which was different
from the moderate pounding he felt most of the time.
hid his own sigh, although his was of frustration.
withdrawn. Not that the man had ever
been congenial, but there had been times when his presence had been almost
bearable. Now the only times he spoke
anymore were to say something caustic.
regain his sight as fast as he can.
Perhaps I’m just reading too far into things.
“We’re going to combine two exercises into one, actually.
very small amount – and then we’re going to test your eyesight a bit.”
already doing that, doc.”
classic eye exam. I have some pieces of
poster board that have been cut in half.
On them, letters, or numbers, or shapes have been printed in red, since
that’s the light frequency best seen by the human eye.
before you can focus on them and how far away they can be before you can’t
recognize them.”
enough that Sands’ headache became literally blinding.
anymore.
noticed this when his patient stopped cooperating altogether.
back the obscene comment he was going to make in reply to that.
and blindly stared at the ceiling, letting everything go completely out of
focus. The light still hurt, but not as
badly as it had when the bandages had first been taken off.
to bite back a moan, even though no more light had been in the room than the
light cast by a small candle. The room
he was in now was lit by dim sunlight.
Natural sunlight. The shades on
the windows were controlled by computer to simulate different strengths of
sunlight – at the moment they were a step above dusk.
Sands listened as a pair of heels came into the room.
the person’s gate, but it wasn’t recognizable enough for Sands to know
Day of the Dead. He recognized all those
footsteps. And there was no hesitation
to make him think that perhaps his memory wasn’t as good as he thought it
was. His interest roused enough to make
him ask, “Who’s your friend, doc?”
mine. We went to med school together –
heck, we grew up together – and she’s actually a friend of Tessa’s as well.”
appreciated, a name would be appreciated even more.”
footsteps from and he held back the desire to laugh.
Rochester.”
his patient ans frs friend alone some time before.
awkward and in the way, so he’d excused himself.
sorts.
well,” Sands addressed the dark, human-shaped blur at the other end of the
room. I see you’re still bleaching your
hair.”
a jackass.”
chuckled. “Sorry, rubia, but things
don’t change that much.” He was glad to
see that she was still upset with him over their sudden breakup.
after more than three years.”
grudge. I simply don’t like you.”
sockets. “They sent me down to evaluate
whether you should be taken back to DC immediately or left here to finish
recuperating.”
me back now that I’ve risen from the dead?”
viewing it as anything that spectacular.
Just another agent emerging from the ranks of those gone MIA.
is going to be happy to learn that you’ve been in the States for over two
months without sending some sort of notification that you’re alive.
rather hard to get some news of you.”
Sands grimaced. “Before I left,
the Senator was pressing for marines to go in and search you out, despite the
fact that the trail would have gone cold by now.”
uncomfortable silence between the two.
Sands, of course, reveled in it, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and
lighting one. Inge stood across the
room, feeling irritation buzzing under her skin.
control.
from arranging the latest batch of new furniture to arrive at her house.
York
bedroom apartment while she tried to find a house.
she could afford to spend, and she’d spent one entire afternoon on the phone
with her attorney trying to figure out how much money she had available to
her. The final figure had been
considerably higher than she’d thought – it turned out that Barillo had never
changed his will . . . the will that listed her as the primary beneficiary if
Ajedrez was also dead. The news that she
had nearly a hundred million dollars in off-shore accounts had kept her sitting
in shock for another afternoon. Not that
she had access to that much money – half of that was in accounts that were
monitored by the cartel and she couldn’t take money out of them without
alerting ‘the family.’ But the rest of
it was in her personal accounts, which she did
have access to.
The next morning she’d started looking for a house that she could feel
comfortable in.
found the house she and the children were now living in.
personal assistant. Cora was also a
registered nurse who specialized in home care for the . . . mentally impaired,
or at least that’s what she wanted to specialize in.
young age. At twenty-two, she was nearly
a decade younger than Tess, but Tess had looked over
her qualifications and recommendations and had decided that the woman was just
what she needed. Cora had needed a job
and Tess had needed someone to help her look after the children and be on hand
later, Tess was ready to admit that the woman was a lifesaver.
bottomless well of energy, and she wasn’t daunted by Tessa’s confession of
being a schizophrenic.
obviously not a very bright woman. Tess
ignored that comment, instead surveying what she was coming to think of as her
home.
large, but it had a distinctly Spanish flavor to it that she found comforting:
red-tile floors, stucco walls, exposed beams.
Her favorite feature were the humongous floor to ceiling windows in the
living room. There was a large kitchen
that Tess was sure she’d never come close to using completely.
family room, a bathroom, a guest room, a small study, and a laundry room.
bathrooms. The third was a converted
attic. Tess was pleased with herself for
finding this house. The only problem was
filling it. After so many years of living
on the go, she didn’t have that many possessions.
assistant, she was quickly solving that problem.
nine. Tess surveyed the downstairs and
sighed. She really didn’t have the
energy to keep going tonight. She headed
towards the stairs, pausing for a moment when she saw her cell phone sitting on
a nearby table.
know you want to call and see how he’s doing.
swear to god that I am going to give up on you.
her. Nothing makes you happy.
him back to the US because you felt guilty, you were ready to let him kill you
because you felt guilty, you left because you felt guilty . . . and now you’re
feeling guilty for something you did out of guilt.
went up the stairs, ignoring the urge to call and check in on Sands.
tendency to let the man occupy her thoughts even though he was no longer even
in the same town as her.
he ever would. So, baring the chance
that
her, Sands was none of her business anymore.
her mind.
bedroom and went into the bathroom. She
ran herself a bath and climbed in, turning on the radio.
talk, gospel, heavy metal, classic rock . . . she paused on that station.
type of music Sands listened to.
she was doing. Fed up with herself, she
turned the radio off entirely and climbed out of the bath.
leaving a single lamp on to chase away the darkness.
cell phone started to ring, but she didn’t hear it.
Angeles
five months later
glasses back up on his nose as he finished packing his bags.
fed up with him, or this was good as things were going to get.
colored blurs and bright lights, but the glasses were going to take getting
used to. A lot was going to take getting
used to. He still hadn’t managed to look
at his new eyes in a mirror – he’d been told they were a shade of hazel-green,
but as he’d discovered hearing was one thing and seeing was another game
entirely. He’d been hearing things all
his life, and in the past eight months, he’d discovered that seeing wasn’t all
it was cracked up to be.
another shirt in his suitcase, thinking, Maybe when I get
contacts I can look myself in the eye again.
months. Pierce was insisting that his
eyes needed more time to ‘adjust’.
leaves in an hour and a half. We need to
get moving.” Sands looked up at the
blond standing in his doorway. For a
month or two aftee’d e’d first come out, she’d insisted on living with him, dismissing
Carl and taking care of him herself.
It’d only taken a day for Sands to miss Carl.
she could care for him just was well as the next guy . . . or
gotten the impression that there was some kind of rivalry going on between Tess
and Inge, and Inge was d and and determined to win his
affections back. He could only shake his
head – the idea of sharing a bed with her again wasn’t that bad, but the
sentiment behind it was a pain in the ass.
The woman was looking for a trophy husband, but it wasn’t going to be
him. That, or
she was trying advance her career by using him.
Even Tess hadn’t sunk that low.
He’d kicked her out the moment he could see well enough to get by on his
own.
though, stopping by once every few days with groceries or whatever, offering to
drive him around, volunteering to make meals for
him. When she’d discovered that he’d
called Carl to come help him out with that stuff, she’d gone rigid with
anger. The only thing Sands regretted
about that was he hadn’t been able to clearly see her face.
hand, was remembering why nothing more than her pride had been hurt when Sands
had broken things off. He was a grade
ever thanked you for sticking around.”
Her ears picked up when Sands said that.
It wasn’t an apology, but it was the closest he would ever get to giving
one.
“You’re a lot
easier to tick-off than Carl.” Sands
smirked at the look on her face, dismay quickly replaced by disgust.
missing something. His guns.
into the one that had been Tessa’s. If a
memory could twinge in the same manner that a muscle could when it was pulled,
he’d have the mother of all headaches by now.
Despite doing his best, he’d been unable to put the woman out of his
mind. The way she cleaned when she was
nervous or had something on her mind, her incessant quotes, her
refusal to fight back against him – verbally or physically – when he provoked
her, the quiet but resigned hurt in her voice that day in the hospital.
is always a valid excuse for hunting her down.
Ok, then you need
she’s too close. s a s a liability
unless you’re willing to claim responsibility for her.
That was total
bologna. Sands went to the closet and
moved the stack of pillows there. He’d
never removed the r twr two guns that Tess had hidden there.
ammunition. But that wasn’t all he
found. There was also a box there.
what?
Inge was nagging
from the other room, complaining that they were going to miss their
flight. Sands rolled his eyes –
something he could do without pain these days – and shut the door to the room,
locking it to keep his nosy guest out.
stared at the box, he couldn’t help but remember the scene in Peter Pan where
Pan opened a present he’d thought had been from Wendy, only to have it explode
in his face. He got the feeling that
opening this box would be tantamount to having the same thing happen to
him. But what the hell
. . . he’d already considered opening the box.
Might as well see things through.
The top flaps of
the box were simply folded over to keep things closed.
newspaper that had been folded and stuffed inside to keep the contents a
secret. The first thing that met his
ewas was a card. With misgiving, he
opened it. It only contained one word –
congratulations. The handwriting was the
same as that on the box; Sands could only assume that it was Tessa’s.
how the letters lacked ornamentation, that the words resembled print more than
cursive. It was very distinctive – bold
yet unassuming. Sands looked up as the
door rattled.
“Sheldon!
“Don’t get your
panties in a bunch,” he muttered under his breath, setting aside the card to
see what else la niña had seen fit to
leave him. He reached into the box and
pulled out a book, another box, and a drawstring bag.
small marionette. “Damn you.”
unattended. He was going to have to
decide what to do about her.
Outside of
“I don’t care if
the trail has gone cold, señor Keel. I
hired you to find my cousin, and that is what you will do.
you will be doing until you track her down.
If I even hear a rumor that you’ve taken another job before this one is
finished, I’ll make sure that you regret it.”
Carlos Velasquez hung up his phone, handing it to the flunkie who’d been
at his side, then waving the man away.
time to think.
In the months since
the Día los Muertos massacre, his hold on the cartel had solidified to the
point where he could afford to wander his uncle’s estate without bodyguards
trailing behind. He looked forward to
the time when he could move operations back to Zacatecas without having to
worry that he was leaving a fomenting rebellion behind him.
he could get the funds he needed to manage the territory left to him by the
death of Barillo – his mother’s brother – and Ajedrez.
territory all the way down to
as had been planned for several years now.
But he needed Terésa first.
Needed to have her
back under the influence of the cartel mentality.
Needed her to show
that the Barillos had not been weakened by infighting.
And he needed her
soon.
*************************************************************
Author’s Note:
well, there we go. The end of that
story. I’ve gone ahead and posted the
prologue to the sequel, so you can go read that.
Thursday at the latest. I know, that’s a
long way away, but I’m having to rewrite some stuff
I’d already written because it was OOC.
That’s what you get for writing things months in advance.
Wanted to include my
inspiration for this fic. The first time
I saw OUATIM, I went with my friend Sarah, and on the drive home, she had some
radio station playing, but the lyrics to one of the songs really inspired
me. They were There’s more to this life than living and dying/more than just trying
to make it through the day/More to this life/More than these eyes along can
see/and there’s more that life alone can be.
the sequel, because then people discover what there is to life that is more
than what can be seen, but whatever.
Quotes:
Emily Dickinsen, and Ursula Le Guin
Author’s Thanks:
thanks go to everyone who ever reviewed, even if it was just once.
were sent in, or the one line reviews, or the humongous reviews, was what kept
me going. The urges, the threats, the nagging
. . . thanks to you all. Now for the
reviews for the last chapter:
Scarlett
(Scarlett! *smack*
although I wouldn’t mind reading another chapter of your fic. ^_^);
Pet (I’m glad you’re saving your tomatoes.
I get the feeling you’ll like the next fic.
without romaromance . . . well . . . not sure how much romance I’ll be writing, per se, but there will be some
relationship stuff going on. : P);
chapter was displaying in two different fonts and font sizes, so I had to
delete the chapter and repost. It was
annoying, to say the least. Thanks for the
complements.); Digital Diamond (I
think I can safely say that your reviews have ‘flair.’
as I finish this. And Jessica – well,
she noses into everyone’s business, not just Tessa’s.
It’s up, or it had better be.); Nimwen (oh, my ideas roll so fast that they
me. : P
expectations.); CaptainJackSparrowsGirl
(yes, more, a sequel. I hope everyone
has caught on to that by now. ^_^);
a month to post the new story . . . I honestly think I’d be killed in effigy by
then. You reviewers can be brutal if
your obsessions don’t get fed.); and Blank
(yes, I caught that little mistake as well, and I’ll fix it once I post the
final copy of this story. That’ll be in
a week or so – there’s a lot of story to read through and fix.)
And new reviewers à
the first to be obsessed, and hopefully you won’t be the last.);
really don’t try to make people cry, but it’s always a plus.
like to think my Sands is an accurate interpretation of Sands, but it all
depends on the reader, I guess.); Crystal
Symphony (thanks for the quotes, and thanks for the complements.
read something this long – it can be daunting.); and Lorelei Lee (I’m not a quick, fluffy, romance type of girl – which
isn’t to say that I won’t be moving into some smut-like territory, but it’ll be
just as painful and confusing and angsty and full of
substance as the rest of the story. I’ve
written some preliminary scenes and run them by people, and they seem to like the
character building/informational stuff I’ve thrown in with the sex.
though. ^_^
character, and Jess . . . well, apparently she’s one of those people you either
love or hate. Glad I got her character
written down that well.)
And last, but never least, more thanks and gratituhan han I
can ever give to Ashley, who stepped
forward to be my beta. And who, despite
ice storms, evil computers, bad job hours, school, and family, has been sending
me beta copies full of caught typos and grammar mistakes.
to working with you on ‘Fallen.’